The present invention relates to a building block for construction sets and especially to toy building blocks capable of being used to form electrical circuits.
In U.S. Pat. No. 3,005,282 there is disclosed a building block, in which a top face is provided on its one side with at least one row of coupling pins and on its other side with counter-coupling sockets for connection with the coupling pins of an adjacent similar building block. Such blocks are widely sold under the trade names "LEGO" and "DUPLO". It is furthermore known from Swiss Pat. No. 455,606 that at least some of the coupling pins may have electrically conducting surfaces or that the side of the face provided with counter-coupling socket may have electrically conducting connectors intended to establish electrical contact with the conducting surfaces of an adjacent, coupled, building block, when the two blocks are coupled together mechanically.
These known building blocks for constructing electrical circuits are expensive to manufacture, cannot be used universally with other building blocks of the same building block system and require the user to have at least an elementary knowledge of electrotechnology with respect to circuit diagrams.
In German patent application No. 2,552,587, a clamping building block with possibilities for electrical connections is disclosed, in which an electrical connection is produced at the places of contact between elevations and depressions of the building block by connecting contact sites mounted at these places. In this system, special attention has to be given to avoid short circuits when connections are made. How the contacting sites are mounted for is not explained in the patent.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a building block of the aforementioned type having electrical contacting means.
A further object is to provide such a block in which the coupling pins and counter-coupling sockets may can be combined at will with conventional building blocks of the same building block system which are without contacting means and the contact-making ability.
A still further object is to provide such a block in which the contact making ability is generally independent with respect to position of the block.